D-Link Full HD Ultra-Wide View Wi-Fi Camera (DCS-2630L) review

Years ago, the Dropcam security cameras in many ways brought easy to setup home monitoring to the mainstream consumer. But today we find ourselves with more choices than we know what to do with and sadly all too many of those come with a monthly subscription fee to store and/or view past footage of events. Though not so for the D-Link Full HD Ultra-Wide View WiFi Camera (DCS-2630L), which not only enables you to watch live footage and receive notifications but also view past events via its built-in microSD card storage. The DCS-2630L captures a full 180 degrees of viewing angle with its (relatively) distortion/fish-eye free lens and software combination.

Note: Images can be clicked to view a larger size.

In the Box:

Full HD Ultra-Wide View Wi-Fi Camera (DCS-2630L)

microUSB power adapter

Mounting screws

Quick install guide

Hardware:

The D-Link Full HD Ultra-Wide View Wi-Fi Camera is very well built, composed of sturdy black plastic and metal with a gloss front face and a matte finish on the back. At three quarters of a pound and measuring 3.37 x 3.37 x 5.53 inches, the DCS-2630L is definitely not the smallest or lightest in its field of competition.

For those of you who have seen the Dropcam or Nest Cameras in person, I would compare the 2630 as their bigger, more talented brother. In that larger housing, D-Link is able to squeeze in a greater feature set than many of the DCS-2630L’s competitors.

D-Link includes all the hardware needed to mount the DCS-2630L nearly anywhere in your house. The base of the DCS-2630L is heavy and made of metal. It is nicely weighted, enabling you to securely set the camera on any flat surface as well. Like many similar cameras on the market today, the two things the DCS-2630L requires is an outlet and decent WiFi signal. Where my Dropcam Pro struggled to get and maintain a solid WiFi signal in several locations around our house, the DCS-2630L has no connectivity issues at all.

Setup:

Setting up the DCS-2630L took a bit more effort than anticipated but not horribly so. Downloading the mydlink app to my smartphone, setting up an account, and getting the wireless camera logged into my WiFi network and operational was relatively easy. Getting many of the more advanced features tweaked required getting on my laptop and going to the mydlink website.

The final issue I had during setup was that the camera was not recognizing any of the microSD cards I inserted. Come to find out, that you must go into the advanced section of the web interface, to the SD management tab to format the card before the camera can record to it. After that everything worked as I hoped.

Specifications:

Camera Hardware Profile

1/3″ 3-megapixel progressive CMOS sensor

16 ft night vision with infrared LEDs

Minimum illumination: 0 lux with IR LEDs on

Built-in microphone and speaker

8x digital zoom

Focal length: 1.72 mm

Aperture: F2.0

Angle of view:

(H) 182°

(V) 112°

(D) 182°

External Device Interfaces

802.11ac wireless

Power LED

Reset button

WPS button

microUSB power connector

microSD card slot

Image Features

Adjustable image size, quality, frame rate and bit rate

Adjustable brightness, saturation, contrast, sharpness and hue

Configurable motion and sound detection

Time stamp and text overlays

Flip & mirror

Anti-flicker (on/off)

Video Compression

Simultaneous H.264/MJPEG format video compression

JPEG for still images

Video Resolution

1920 x 1080 at up to 30 fps

1280 x 720 at up to 30 fps

640 x 352 up to 30 fps

320 x 176 up to 30 fps

Audio Support

AAC

PCM

ADPCM

Network

Network Protocols

IPv4, ARP, TCP, UDP, ICMP

DHCP Client

NTP Client (D-Link)

DNS Client

DDNS Client (D-Link)

SMTP Client

FTP Client

HTTP Server

Samba Client

PPPoE

UPnP port forwarding

LLTD

HTTPs for configuration

Bonjour

Security

Administrator and user group protection

Password authentication

HTTP and RTSP digest encryption

Physical

Dimensions (H x W x D)

3.37 x 3.37 x 5.53 inches

Weight

0.76 lbs (camera only)

Power Input

5 V DC / 1.5 A, 50/60 Hz through power adapter

The DCS-2630L incorporates a full HD 1080p camera with a 3 megapixel (MP) progressive CMOS sensor protected by a glass lens. As I mentioned earlier, its lens has a 180 degree horizontal field of view and the ability to see up to 16 feet at night using the built-in infrared LEDs. There is also a passive infrared sensor (PIR) that gives enhanced motion detection. The DCS-2630L has a built-in microphone and speaker, enabling two-way communication.

Video footage is recorded internally to a microSD card inserted into the camera. While D-Link does not include one, the DCS-2630L is able to use up to a 128gb microSD card. Which is excellent due to the space needed to store 1080p video.

The DCS-2630L is powered by a microUSB cable which is pretty standard these days.

The video feed and image quality are very good. The DCS-2630L lives up to its name, providing “Full HD Ultra-Wide View” with minimal visible warping or distortion. You can still see distortion at the edges, but not horrendously so. The HD 1080p provides a clear detailed viewing experience. According to D-Link, a 128gb SD card can hold about 7 days of HD video before writing over the oldest content. The free mydlink Lite app is available for iOS, Android devices and Windows phones, enabling you to view, control, pinch to zoom up to 8x and communicate via theDCS-2630L’s built-in mic and speaker.

Sound and motion detections can be sent via push alerts to the mydlink app or via email notifications. Motion detection can be triggered in both day and night situations. Surveillance video can be continuously recorded, but you can also schedule time periods when it records in addition to setting it to record anytime the motion or sound detection is triggered.

In addition to the speaker, there is also a LED status light and WPS button built into the back as well.

The only negative I find with this camera and the many others like it, is that it is for indoor use only. I prefer knowing who is coming up to my house vs who has gotten into my house.

Overall, the D-Link Full HD Ultra-Wide View Wi-Fi Camera is the best consumer grade WiFi surveillance camera I have used thus far. The DCS-2630L captures great HD video that spans 180 degrees of coverage with little warping or distortion. It has a strong feature set and great WiFi signal strength. Add in the fact, it records to a microSD that can be streamed to you anywhere on more or less any device without having to buy into a subscription service makes theDCS-2630L well worth considering.

Source: The sample for this review was provided by D-Link. Please visit their site for more info and Amazon to order.

I'm currently working on a review of the Fitbit Charge 2. The Charge 2 is an updated version of the Fitbit Charge HR that I reviewed last year. It combines the smaller sized wrist wearable looks with the features of the Fitbit Surge. Stay tuned for my review coming soon.